We went for our regular Sunday swim, even with Joseph and David completing the Gold standard. Our coach helped us take some nice underwater family shots.
In the afternoon, we received our 2018 West Coast Wolves soccer jerseys. One set for each of the boys!
In the evening, we watched live telecast of the Singapore Formula One while we had pizza.
The older boys took the Swimsafer Gold Standard (Stage 6) test on Sunday 9 Sept 2018. After the written paper, they swam the following:
Swim (use standing dive entry for Front-Crawl, Breaststroke):
1. 100m Front-Crawl (within 3:00 min)
2. 100m Breaststroke (within 4:00 min)
3. 100m Backstroke (within 3:20 min)
4. 50m Survival Backstroke
5. 50m Sidestroke
6. 15m Butterfly
Dressed in swimwear, long pants, t-shirt, perform the following sequence
1. Enter deep water using a compact jump
2. Perform a head-first surface dive to a depth of 1.8m (and perform ear equalisation, if necessary)
3. Swim through hoops on pool bottom for 5m and resurface
4. Swim 45m quickly using front crawl
5. Then, swim slowly for a further 50m using any preferred survival swim stroke. Remove pants in deep water and make a float with it while treading water for 5m.
6. Demonstrate Heat Escape Lessening Posture (H.E.L.P.) technique for 1min with the self-made float
7. Then swim 25m with the self-made float and climb out of the water
Here’s the freestyle (David much faster than Joseph):
Backstroke:
Butterfly:
And they passed!
Esther swam 10 laps and then escorted Samuel for 8 laps, while YowCH did his regular 10 laps.
Grace was at work this Sunday.
The Bible Church, Singapore celebrated Teachers’ Day on 25 and 26 August. As we attend Saturday service, we had a tea session before the church service.
Joseph lead the children and teachers in worship before eating.
The teachers took a group photo.
There were lots of nice food.
Later in the afternoon, during the main Saturday Service, the children presented a song, Thankful. Esther played the guitar (hidden on the left), YowCH played the ukulele and Joseph played the cajon (with Sean Koh) while Ryan (not in photo) played the piano to accompany the children.
Here is Samuel singing loudly and nicely!
Samuel had a school trip to Jacob Ballas Garden on 2 August 2018. Grace and YowCH took leave and went along. Click on the photos below to go to the page:
After visiting the garden, we took Joseph from school and went for lunch and Karaoke at Star Vista.
Samuel is also able to assemble Lego for ages *+ although he is not yet 5.
On Sunday, 5 August 2018, Samuel started training with the West Coast Wolves with his new boots.
We found a pair of very small sized soccer boots in Adidas Outlet and bought for Samuel (discounted from $99 to $45).
YowCH also ordered two very strong liquors, Bacardi 151° rum (flammable) and Absinthe (75% alcohol!)
We got a pair of underwater headphones for David, to encourage him for the 50 laps challenge. Finis Duo is designed to transmit sound through bone conductance. New price in Singapore is about $240, we got this second hand at $100.
[added 21 Aug 2018] Photo of the headphones in use in the pool:
Joseph built these 7 Gundam SD models over the past 3 months. He really likes doing this.
Today, Joseph participated in the Bukit Batok East Tourney. We did not win, but had lots of fun and game time.
We bought some durians on Tuesday and Samuel was able to help open them.
We bought Joseph a Baby-G watch, BGA240-1A3, which is meant as a reward for him achieving Swimsafe Gold standard. He has not taken the swim test yet, but his watch is running dead, so we gave him the watch anyway because his training timings have reached the Gold standard.
Samuel is still not growing as fast as he should be, so the doctor in KKH recommended to start on hormone treatment to see if it helps.
This is the whole package:
The auto-injector is applied to the buttocks, with a mild stinging-pain.
We visited the zoo on 23 June, Saturday, with the Tans. Click photos below for the page:
Today, YowCH took leave and brought Joseph and Samuel to the Treetop Walk at Macritchie. Click the photo below for more photos in the dedicated page:
After the hike, we drove home to pick Grace and had Rollie Ollie lunch in Star Vista. After lunch, we got a Liho pearly milk tea drink and then went to Teo Heng Karaoke for some singing fun:
After karaoke, we shopped a bit more, and as we spent more than $80 in Star Vista and claimed an inflatable sofa (for our next picnic!).
With renewal of the Automobile Association of Singapore membership, YowCH got the Mifold (and carry bag) for free. It is an alternate ‘booster’ seat which lowers the seat belt to fit a child.
Samuel likes it, it is small and convenient, and easy to set-up. We are still using the normal child seat, this is for taxi and travel use.
Grace received a KKH Care Tin on 7 June as part of the 160th anniversary of KKH. It has lots of snacks in it.
For two weekends over the school holidays period (2 and 9 June), YowCH conducted cajon lessons for the Church junior classes on Saturdays (instead of the Sunday School lessons). He had help from young church friends.
The third and last lesson will be on 23 June.
Grace re-contracted and is now using the Samsung S9 (Coral Blue). Nice phone, YowCH will likely get this soon.
We went for our regular swim, and Samuel swam 8 laps continuously. That’s 400m.
We also asked our coach to help us take a family portrait underwater.
This is YowCH after 10 laps of freestyle. At 44 today, he looked very tired. So he had a heavy lunch.
Actually, the plate of goodies was shared with the family. This nice roast meat stall is Kay Lee at Henderson Road.
For dinner, we met the Yongs and ate Korean food at Toa Payoh Central.
And to end the birthday night, Grace made a grapefruit soju for YowCH:
